Models backstage at Zac Posen, New York, February 7.   (Photo: Christopher Anderson)

Fashion has always been an industry that champions the singular: the one designer (Karl, Marc, Ralph) whom all others appear to emulate; the individual model (Cindy, Kate, Agyness) who epitomizes contemporary beauty; the new trend (minis, layers, goth) that sets off a sea change in the way we dress. But as much as the fashion world loves to single out, it also loves the blurry, unfocused excitement of the collections. Beginning in February in New York and ending in Paris four weeks later, the fall 2008 collections were filled with ideas both promising and worrying, unifying and contradictory, inspired and exhausting.

It could take weeks to make sense of all that glamorous information. And it did; this, the second issue of Look, is the result. Look’s job is to document the collection season with a thoroughness bordering on mania. We’ve filtered out the noise, and pointed our pens and lenses at the individuals and designs that made the most singular impressions.

To get this project started, we sent Magnum photographer, Christopher Anderson, into the wilds of the Fashion Weeks. He shadowed ascendant model Ali Stephens, the established but still indie designer Maria Cornejo, the ineluctable superstar Karl Lagerfeld, and two less visible stars—stylist Katie Grand, and hair wizard Eugene Souleiman. We honed the trends, from classic (we’re overjoyed to report, black is still back) to sexily regressive (lace!) to recklessly avant-garde (collars now resemble origami). At the end of this pursuit, there may not be agreement on a singular image or individual that represented a definitive moment, but the affair is now at least confined to the pages here. Immediate and thorough; that’s as singular as a fashion magazine can get.